<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Meant For The Fire by LeoOtherLands</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26472928">Meant For The Fire</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeoOtherLands/pseuds/LeoOtherLands'>LeoOtherLands</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>All the Broken Pieces [22]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Naruto</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>ANBU Kito, Gen, Medical Nin, Melancholy, Missions Gone Wrong, Sadness, Sort Of, The author is somewhat sad</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 09:21:27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>995</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26472928</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeoOtherLands/pseuds/LeoOtherLands</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>They were meant to gather intelligence, now look for survivors.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>All the Broken Pieces [22]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1386661</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Meant For The Fire</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I don't want to rest in peace<br/>I want to dance in joy<br/>I want to dance in the graveyards<br/>The graveyards<br/>And while I'm alive,<br/>I don't want to be alone<br/>Mourning the ones who came before<br/>I want to dance with them some more<br/>Let's dance in the graveyards</p><p>Gloria, like some other name<br/>We kept on calling ya<br/>And waiting for change.<br/>But I belong to all of your mysteries</p><p>And all of us<br/>are meant for the fire<br/>But we keep rising up<br/>And walking the wires<br/>So when we go below,<br/>Don't lose us in mourning</p><p>Oh my love, don't cry when I'm gone.<br/>I will lift you up, the air in your lungs.<br/>And when you reach for me,<br/>We'll dance in the darkness</p><p>And we will walk beyond<br/>Our daughters and sons.<br/>They will carry on<br/>Like when we were young<br/>And we will stand beside, and breathe in the new life</p><p>When I die,<br/>I don't to rest in peace<br/>I want to dance in joy<br/>I want to dance in the graveyards<br/>The graveyards<br/>And while I'm alive,<br/>I don't want to be alone<br/>Mourning the ones who came before<br/>I want to dance with them some more.<br/>Let's dance in the graveyards.</p><p>
  <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPOM0IUsd_0&amp;list=WL&amp;index=6&amp;t=0s">Dance In the Graveyards - Delta Rae</a>
</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Crow’s body was shaking minutely beside mine. We were close enough together, our skin almost touching, just a hair’s breadth from that, and I could feel the tremble in him. His thin body so much smaller than mine, and yet so much stronger all at once, reacting with silent horror, or perhaps anger, to the scene before us. It was hard to tell with Crow, even when his mask was off, his face so rarely showed emotion, beyond quiet thought and intensity. But underneath that, the young ANBU felt deeply. And what we were looking at would raise feeling in anyone.</p><p>We hunched down at the edge of the tree line, where we were just screened by the shade of the leaves, their shadows dancing on our porcelain masks. Millimeters before our fingertips, bare ground stretched out to where a village used to be. Where it had stood the night before, its windows lit with fire against the dark of the night. What remained in the slowly-dawning light of day, were ashes and low-glowing embers around the skeletons of houses. Scattered here and there, like discarded things, were forms in the dust. Burnt and bloodied and still in the pale shine of watery sun.</p><p>It wasn’t meant to be like this. We weren’t sent here to encounter something like this. We weren’t dispatched from <em>Konoha</em> to repel bandit assaults, or stop the fanatic rituals of cultists. Not this time. All our orders entailed was the gathering of intelligence from the borders of the Land of Fire. We were the shadows flittering about the extremities of <em>Konoha’s</em> power, seeking out weak points, not those sent out to hunt the Leaf’s enemies.</p><p>“<em>Kami</em>, oh <em>kami</em>,” Loon breathed out on my other side. He crutched just a small fraction further from me than Crow, and I could feel the shacking in his limbs, as well. The boy, only slightly older than Crow, and yet still younger than me, was gripping the ground, his fingers digging gorges into the loose earth.</p><p>“What happened here?” Crow questioned, his words for no one in particular. For the smoke-heavy air.</p><p>I did not bother answering him, though perhaps I could. Poles were planted in the ground just outside the smoldering remains of what had once been a village with a name and a history and a people with life. Masks were set on top these poles, dangling dark red ribbons to flutter in the almost-still breeze. Painted across the forehead of each mask was a symbol I knew well. One I had burned off my own hip with <em>chakra</em> when I had yet to reach my tenth year.</p><p>Weeping silent tears behind my owl mask and biting my lip, I stood up slowly and began pacing forward. “Owl!” Crow cautioned from behind, but Loon unfolded to follow me. “There isn’t anyone here,” a faint fall from the older boy’s lips.</p><p>No, no, there was no one there. We three paced forward, turning slow circles, our backs together, to take in the crumbling, gray landscape. Like something out of a dream, it revolved around us. Stark and brittle and still-hot. Cinders rained down on our heads and lingered in our hair, a macabre snow, as out of a child’s nightmare. The sharp, stinging scent of wood smoke clogged our noses and was thick in the back of our throats. Somehow more real and vital in the morning air.</p><p>Burning. The after-smell of burning wood, always so familiar. Like the soft, brushing feel of <em>chakra</em> along the deep, internal essence of my <em>Iryō-nin</em> being. I made a small sound and dashed from my two companions, despite their protests. I couldn’t have stayed by them if I’d tried. Outside the doorstep of one of the desiccated houses, a small flicker of life essence drew me like a moth to the flame. <em>Something</em> remained alive in all this wreck, something so small, a life so faint, not even my ANBU partners could detect it. If I had not trained for years to learn even the subtlest sense of <em>chakra</em> could mean life, if I had not been a medical-<em>nin</em>, I would not have felt it either.</p><p>But I did, and there, in the ruins, buried in soot and the snow of gray ash, was a thin body still shuddering and breathing. And I dragged him out, calling for Crow and Loon as I did so, and holding him on my lap, I cleaned the muck of damp fire residue from his mouth and throat and lungs, and I breathed life and air back into him, and when he opened his red-seamed eyes I ripped off my mask and held him to me and whispered to him it would be alright. He was not going to burn. We would take him back to <em>Konoha</em>.</p><p>Whatever Crow and Loon felt, they joined their soft words to mine and the burning glows behind their masks died, as their <em>sharingan</em> dimmed back to dark, Uchiha eyes, and we four sat in the dirt. Four living things, defying death.</p><p>The adherents of Jashinism said all were meant for the fire, that all were meant to die, and so it didn’t matter if one ended a life. That cruelty and death were noble and pleased Jashin and sacrifices should be given in pain. Not even when I was young had I doubted we were all going to die one day. But even then, alone and faced with hurt and fear, I’d known one could fight the fire. Why else would we keep rising up, day after day, and grasping at more? We might be meant for the fire, but we were not meant to burn. We were not meant to be ash. And if I could save even one life, I would do it. Over and over and over. I would find my way through the flames, and take anyone I could with me, even if I burned in the process.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I know I used to do bigger things for this day... but I haven't in awhile now and I think you probably don't mind. You want to know what I did do today? I went to a job interview, then I took mom out to dinner because the last thing you ever asked me to do was take care of mom. And then I wrote these few words because you always knew I could do it, you always believed in me and were so thrilled your kid was a writer. I wouldn't be here if it weren't for you. So, happy birthday, and I hope you are dancing wherever you are. I love you. Sincerely, the son you never knew you had.</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>